Control device



J. L. HARRIS CONTROL DEVICE Nov. 15, 1960 Filed April 7, 1958 United States Patent Ofiice 2,960,582 Patented Nov. 15, 1960 CONTROL DEVICE John L. Harris, Jhitefish Bay, Wis. (4753 N. Newhall St., Milwaukee 11, Wis.)

Filed Apr. 7, 1958, Ser. No. 726,782

8 Claims. (Cl. 200-38) This invention relates generally to timing devices.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a simple and compact repeat cycle timer capable of giving an accurate short control cycle at infrequent intervals.

A further object is the provision of a program type timer in which a manual cycle can be initiated at any time without disturbing the program setup.

Other objects will appear from the following description and appended claims.

For a full description of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the timer;

Figure 2 is an external side view;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary internal front view showing a portion of the operating mechanism;

Figure 4 is a front view of the knob assembly broken away to show the trip lever;

Figure 5 is a perspective of one of the trip fingers;

Figure 6 is a sectional view of the operating mechanism and showing the ear train schematically.

Figure 7 is a section of line VIIVII of Figure 4.

Referring to the drawings Figures 1 and 2, reference character 1 indicates a dial which serves to support the timer housing 2. This timer housing carries a terminal or switch panel 3 and a timer motor 4. Located in front of the dial and preferably recessed into the dial is a hollow knob 5. Located in front of knob 5 is a small manual start knob 6.

As shown in Fig. 6 the housing 2 includes a front panel 7 and a rear panel 8 between which the gear train and knob shafts are supported. The shaft 10 which supports the small knob 6 carries a cam 11 which is pressed firmly on this shaft. This cam shaft 10 extends through a hollow drive shaft 12 which carries the large hollow knob 5. The shaft 12 carries a gear 13. This gear is secured to the shaft by a friction clutch so that the knob 5 may be turned while the gear 13 remains stationary. This gear 13 is driven by a pinion 14. This pinion is driven by the timer motor pinion 15 through the gears generally indicated as 16.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated, the timer is intended for controlling regeneration of automatic water softeners. In this application it is desirable for the user to set up a weekly schedule for regeneration. Thus the dial 1 is a seven day dial and the gears of the gear train 16 are selected so as to drive the knob 5 at a speed of one revolution in seven days.

The cam shaft it) carries a gear 18 which meshes with a pinion 19. This pinion is driven by the timer motor through gears 20 and 21. It should be noted that the drive shaft 12 is driven by the motor pinion through an even number of gear reductions while the cam shaft 10 is driven by this same motor pinion through an odd number of gear reductions. This arrangement causes the cam shaft 10 to rotate in a counter clockwise direction while the drive shaft and knob 5 rotate in a clockwise direction.

The gear 18 is secured to a hub 23 carried by the reduced portion 24 of shaft 10. The hub 23 is a running fit on the shaft so that the gear 18 is free to rotate relative to the shaft. This gear 18 carries a stud 25 which extends forwardly through a slot 26 in the cam 11 (Fig. 3). A spring 27 is located between the gear 18 and the cam 11. This spring is arranged to push on the pin 25 so as to bias the gear 18 in a counterclockwise direction as seen in Fig. 3. The gear 18 is provided with a segment 28 in which the teeth have been omitted. This causes the gear to stop in the position shown when the last tooth of the gear disengages from the pinion 19. In this position the manual knob 6 is in the off position as shown in Fig. 1. The cam shaft may be started manually by turning the manual knob clockwise to bring the gear 18 back into engagement with the pinion 19. The cam shaft is also started automatically at predetermined times by the arrangement to be described later.

The cam 11 operates a cam follower 30 which is pivoted at 31. This cam follower has a leg 32 which rides the cam and also has a leg 33 which operates the switch generally indicated as 34. The cam follower is biased against the cam by a suitable spring (not shown). The switch 34 is carried by the terminal panel 3 which is supported between the front and back panels of 7 and 8 of the timer housing 2.

For illustrative purposes the switch 34 is shown as including a switch blade 35 carrying a contact 36. This switch blade 35 is supported by a terminal bracket 37 mounted on the terminal panel 3. This switch also includes blades 38 and 39 which are secured together and mounted on a terminal bracket 40. Also mounted on the terminal panel is a stationary contact bracket 41 carrying a contact 42. A second contact bracket 44 is also mounted on the panel and carries a contact 45 cooperating with a contact 46 carried by blade 38.

Located inside the hollow knob 5 (Fig. 4) is a trip lever 48. This trip lever is supported on a bushing 49 (Fig. 7) which is pressed on a shaft 50 which passes through the dial 1 and the housing panel 7. This shaft 50 is supported on a sleeve 51 having a portion passing through dial 1 and panel 7. This sleeve is staked at the front of the dial so as to provide a rigid support. The shaft 50 inside the timer case carries a pawl driver 52 carrying a pawl 53. This pawl is pivoted to the pawl driver 52 by a pin 54. A torsion spring 56 has one leg bearing on a stud 57 and another leg bearing on an inturned portion 58 of the pawl driver. This spring serves to bias the pawl driver in a counterclockwise direction as seen in Figure 3. This causes the trip lever 48 to assume the position shown in Fig. 4 in which an edge 59 of the trip lever engages a stop pin 60. When the trip lever 48 is in the position shown in Fig. 4, the pawl driver 52 assumes the position shown in Fig. 3. In this position the leading edge of the pawl 53 is about to engage a lug 62 which forms part of the cam 11. When the trip lever 43 is rotated in a clockwise direction, it turns the shaft 56 which in turn turns the pawl driver 52 in this same direction. The pawl 53 now engages the tab 62 of the cam and advances the cam 11 in a counterclockwise direction for bringing the gear 13 back into engagement with the pinion 19.

The trip lever 48 is turned in this clockwise direction by means of a series of trip fingers 65 carried by the knob 5. As shown in Fig. 5 the trip fingers have an inturned portion 66 and an out-turned portion 67. These trip fingers are secured inside the knob 5 by means of a series of rivets 68. The out-turned portion 67 of each trip finger extends through a slot 70 in the hollow knob 5. As shown in Fig. 7 the inturned portion 66 of the trip finger is adapted to engage an outwardly extending lug 71 on the trip lever 48. The trip levers may be adjusted manually by moving the projections 67 within the range ofmovement provided by the slots 70. When the projection 67 is moved to'its outer position, the projection 66 will engage the projection 71 of the trip lever 48 and thus cause clockwise rotation of the trip lever due to the clockwise rotation of the knob 5. When the projection 67' of any trip finger is moved to its inner position on the knob 5, the projection 66 of that trip finger will miss projection 71 of the trip lever as the trip finger passes by.

Operation With the parts in the position shown, the timer is' in the stand by position. In this position the gear 18 is disengaged from the pinion 19 and, therefore, the cam shaft is stationary with the cam follower 36 riding the highest level of the cam 11. In this position the input switch blade 35 has its contact 36 disengaged from the cooperating contact on blade 39. The terminals 46, 41, and 44 of the switch are therefore dead at this time. As shown in Fig; 1 the time of day is Saturday afternoon as indicated by the time pointer on the knob 5, being on the Saturday afternoon portion of the 7 day dial 1. The Sunday trip lever 65 is now approaching the projection 71 of the trip lever 48.

As the knob 5 rotates, the Sunday trip finger 65 approaches the trip lever 48 and eventually starts to rotate this trip lever 48 in a clockwise direction. This rotates the pawl driver 52 carrying the pawl 53 which in turn engages the lug 62 of the cam 11 and begins to rotate this cam in a counter clockwise direction. When the knob 5 rotates to a position equivalent of approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, the cam 11 has been rotated to the point in which the cam follower leg 32 engages the sloping portion 75 of the cam 11. When this happens, the cam 11 advances in a counter clockwise direction with snap action until the cam follower rests on the intermediate level of the cam 11. At this same time the gear 18 engages the pinion 19. The gear 18 stops its snap action movement when it engages pinion 19. However, the cam 11 can continue its stroke due to the lost motion provided by the pin 25 of the gear and the slot 26 in the cam. The gear 18 at this time is biased in the counter clockwise direction by the spring 27. This spring feeds the gear 18 into the pinion until the leading tooth in the gear gets in front of a tooth on the pinion 19. At this time the pinion will start to drive the gear 18 and the cam shaft in a counter clockwise direction.

When the cam advances as described above so that the cam follower rides the intermediate level on the cam, the switch operating leg 33 of the cam follower moves upwardly to the point where contact 36 on blade 35 engages the cooperating contact on blade 39, but not far enough ot break contacts 45 and 46. Thus, a circuit is closed from the input terminal 37 to blades 35 and 39 and out terminal 46. Also a parallel circuit is established through blades 39, 38, contact 46 and contact 45 to the terminal 44.

As the gear 18 continues to rotate in the counter clockwise direction the gear pin 25 engaging the end of slot 26 causes the cam and cam shaft to rotate in this same direction. This will bring the sloping portion 76 of cam 11- under the edge of the cam follower. When this happens, the cam will move forwardly with snap action due to the biasing effect of the cam follower. This snap action movement of the cam is permitted by the lost motion connection between the cam and gear provided by the pin 25 and slot 26. At this. time the cam follower moves the switch blade 35 upwardly sufiicient to cause the contact on blade 38 to engaged contact 42 on the contact bracket 41. This same movement causes contacts 45 and 46 to. disengage. Thus, in this portion of the cycle, current passes from the terminal bracket 37 through blades 38 and 39 to the terminal bracket 4-0. Also a parallel circuit is established from terminal bracket 37 to the, terminal bracket 41. At this time the circuit to the terminal bracket 44 is broken.

, As the cam continues to rotate, the sloping portion 77 of the cam comes under the cam follower which returns the cam follower back to the intermediate position in which terminalbrackets 40 and 44 are again energized.

As the cycle continues the inclined portion 78 of the cam comes under the cam follower and returns the cam follower to the position shown in Fig. 3 in which all of the terminal brackets are de-energized. Shortly after the cam follower reaches the top of the stroke, the last tooth of the gear 18 disengages from the pinion 19 and the gear and cam shaft thus remain stationary. During this cycle the trip finger lug 66 has still been engaging the lug 71 of the trip lever 48 and continuing to rotate the pawl and pawl driver in a clockwise direction. Eventually the trip finger will move far enough to disengage the trip lever. When this happens the assembly, consisting of the trip lever 48, pawl driver 52 and pawl 53, will rotate in a counter clockwise direction back to the position shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. During this motion, the pawl 53 will retract due to engagement with the lug 62 on cam 11. When the assembly reaches the end of its stroke, the pawl will snap in behind the lug 62 due to the biasing action of its separate spring 80.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the user may set up any weekly program for regeneration of his water softener. Thus, for any day that regeneration is required, the trip finger for that day is moved to its outer position. For days when regeneration is not required, the trip fingers are moved inwardly where they miss the trip lever when passing the same.

It will also be apparent that the present invention provides for Obtaining a manual cycle at any time without disturbing the automatic program set up. To obtain a manual cycle, the user simply flicks the small knob 6 in a counter clockwise direction. This advances the cam and gear assembly just the same as if it had been advanced automatically. This manual start feature is completely independent of the automatic start mechanism and thus a manual cycle can be obtained at any time without disturbing the automatic program.

While the invention has been illustrated in a mechanism especially designed for automatic water softeners, it will be apparent that the invention is not limited to this particular application. It will also be apparent that many changes and modifications can be made in the construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is therefore desired to be limited only by the scope of the intended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a timing device, a drive shaft, a cam shaft concentric with said drive shaft, a cam carried by said cam shaft, a gear carried by said cam shaft, said gear having a portion without teeth, a pinion meshing with said gear for driving the same to rotate said cam shaft, trip lever means for advancing the cam shaft to bring the gear into engagement with the pinion, and a member driven by said drive shaft for operating said trip lever means at a predetermined time.

2. In a timing device, a drive shaft, a cam shaft concentric with the drive shaft, a cam carried by the cam shaft, a cam follower arranged to ride the cam, switching means operated by the cam follower, a gear carried by said cam shaft, said gear having a portion without teeth, a pinion meshing with said gear for driving the same to rotate said cam shaft, trip lever means for advancing the cam shaft to bring the gear into engagement with the pinion, and a member driven by said drive shaft for operating said trip lever means at a predetermined time.

3. In a timing device, a drive shaft, a cam shaft concentric with the drive shaft, a cam carried by the cam shaft, a switch, a cam follower operated by the cam for operating said switch, a gear carried by the cam shaft and having a portion without teeth, a pinion meshing with said gear for driving the same to rotate the cam shaft, a" knob carried by said drive shaft, trip lever means for. advancing the cam shaft to bring the gear into engagement with the pinion, said trip lever means including a member covered by said knob, and means on the knob for operating said member.

4. In a timing device, a drive shaft, a cam shaft concentric with the drive shaft, a cam carried by the cam shaft, a switch, a cam follower operated by the cam for operating said switch, a gear carried by the cam shaft and having a portion without teeth, a pinion meshing with said gear for driving the same to rotate the cam shaft, a knob carried by said drive shaft, trip lever means for advancing the cam shaft to bring the gear into engagement with the pinion, said trip lever means including a member covered by said knob, a trip finger pivoted on said knob, said trip finger having one position in which it engages another position in which it misses said member.

5. In a timing device, a panel, a drive shaft extending through the panel and carrying a hollow knob, a cam shaft at the rear of the panel and carrying a cam, a cam follower arranged to ride the cam, a switch operated by said cam follower, a gear carried by the cam shaft, said gear having a portion without teeth, a pinion meshing with said gear for driving the same to rotate the cam shaft, means for advancing the cam shaft for bringing the gear into engagement with the pinion, said means including a member located inside the knob, and means 8 carried by the knob for engaging said member to operate it at a predetermined time.

6. A timing device as recited in claim 5 in which the cam shaft extends through the drive shaft and carries a knob for direct manual operation of the cam shaft.

7. In a timing device, a cam shaft, a cam mounted rigidly on the cam shaft a gear carried by said cam shaft, a lost motion connection between said gear and cam shaft, a pinion for driving said gear, said gear having a segment without teeth so that the gear dis-engages from the pinion at a predetermined point causing the cam shaft to stop, means for advancing the cam shaft from said point for restarting the gear, a spring for biasing the gear in advance of the cam shaft, said spring serving to apply pressure to the gear for causing it to engage the pinion.

8. In a timing device, a cam shaft, a cam mounted rigidly on the cam shaft, a cam follower riding said cam, a switch operated by said cam follower, a gear carried by said cam shaft, a lost motion connection between the gear and cam shaft, and a pinion meshing with said gear for driving the same.

Kaiser Aug. 13, 1889 Schellens June 29, 1948 

